Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

The overall response to the industrial action is being managed centrally by the Department of Finance with input from all Government Departments, including the Department, and other public service sectors. The industrial action is being closely monitored in the Department on a daily basis and the Department's management is maintaining contacts with the unions concerned to ensure, insofar as possible, that the negative impact on the Department's customers is minimised.

In the main, the industrial action in the Department resulted in telephones not being answered, counter services in public offices not being provided for various periods, certain statistical work returns not being completed, and certain computer systems not being used. A ban on overtime was introduced in the illness benefit area from 22 February 2010 and this ban was extended to other areas of the Department for four weeks from 15 March to 9 April. This and other actions resulted in a delay of one or two days in issuing payment to the customers affected. While the number of illness benefit claims awaiting a decision has stayed broadly the same at about 6,800 over this period, there was an increase in the time taken to process the claims from about six days to an average of eight days during the period of the industrial action.

In some areas, staff not answering phones or attending the public counters worked on processing claims and, as a result, backlogs were reduced and processing times improved as these staff were diverted. Consequently, there is no backlog of claims that can be directly attributed to the industrial action.

Deputies will be aware that there have been significant arrears of jobseekers' claims over the past 18 months or so due to the huge influx of applications for these schemes. However, the number of claims awaiting a decision has been declining every week since the end of January, when they stood at over 62,000 and were reduced to 47,500 at week ending 27 March. The numbers increased to 52,800 after the Easter break. However, this is normal as there is always a significant increase in claims from school-related workers around any school holiday period. This, combined with the impact of the shorter working weeks at this time has resulted in an increase in the number of jobseeker claims awaiting a decision.

Overall, the number of jobseeker claims awaiting a decision expressed as a percentage of the entire claim-load nationally is now at about 10%. This is the level of claims awaiting a decision that applied even when the live register was at its lowest. In some local offices the percentage of claim awaiting a decision is higher, but we are working to bring them in line with the national average as quickly as possible.

The work to rule is ongoing. However, following recent discussions between the unions and the Department of Finance, there has been some relaxation of the industrial action.

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